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Odyssey (AMI, 1995)

Odyssey (AMI, 1995)

Subgenre: Puzzle Platformer, Similar to Ecco and Demon's Crest/Popful Mail


Movement Mechanics: Flight via the bird and bat forms, Wall/ceiling climbing via the spider and turtle forms, Long/high jump via the grasshopper form


Other: Hub Map (three areas are open right away and the rest are basically locked out via abilities), One NPC to trade with on one island

  • Gain animal transformations which let you perform new moves and reach new places

  • Partially non-linear structure (choose between 7 sub areas on a hub map - can move between these at any point as long as you can reach the place you entered a sub area at however it's optimal to do the three outer ones (marked with symbols as you enter them) first to gain the first three transformations and on 4 of the islands you can't get anywhere without having more than the bird transformation, have to increase the "influence"/area of effect of a transformation by finding a large crystal in the area where you found the transformation crystal - this lets you transform on adjacent islands as well; the southern island area (rock monster ability) is completely linear)

  • Collectathon+escort/lure segment on the southeastern island (have to collect 35 coins to buy the orb here which involves luring a bunch of creatures down the right paths) - have to also build two bridges using collected planks here

  • Can get stuck in a couple spots but can also press Esc to suicide

  • Save feature (can only save on the hub map screen, 10 slots per disk) and frequent checkpoints (the crystal globes that light up when touched)

  • No map feature

  • Puzzle focus (green-man/clay humanoid form can whistle to other green-men to make them move/jump towards him, sometimes you switch between two forms quickly to reach new places, enemies can also trigger traps and doors via switches, can hit arrows to make them trigger switches, rock momentum from dashing into walls or rolling far enough is used to increase its power to break certain blocks - some of these are similar to Wario Land 2 in design, sometimes have to trigger a chain reaction of switches then transform into a different form to reach a temporarily open door)

  • Regenerating health (slow, however moving and attacking doesn't affect it here)

  • Extra lives system (pretty easy to rack up lives by finding crossed sword symbols)

  • Some death pits

  • Can't carry healing items with you for later use and they are placed items only+kind of rare (apples)


Playthrough - Mini Review



Influenced by: Possibly Exile (the western game), Quackshot, DuckTales 1-2, Strider (NES), Ecco 1-2, Ys III, SMB3, Wonder Boy III, Prince of Persia or Flashback, Lemmings


Influenced: Possibly Within a Deep Forest, Knytt

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